


One Does Not Simply Walk Out Of Apokolips

by LittleNest



Series: Batfamily Week 2018 [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: (Damian's conception), (damian's childhood), Batfam Week 2018, Bruce Wayne (mentioned) - Freeform, Day 5: Time Travel, Dick Grayson (mentioned) - Freeform, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Jason Todd (mentioned) - Freeform, The Author Regrets Nothing, Time Travel, except time travel grammar, implied/referenced cloning, mention of Damian's resurrection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 17:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15539277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleNest/pseuds/LittleNest
Summary: In a world where Bruce's decision to get Damian's body back from Apokolips has apocalypse-sized consequences, Tim and Damian engineer a plan to go back in time and prevent it. Left alone after Tim's death, Damian must decide how far exactly he is willing to go - not just in time.Written for Batfam Week 2018, day 5: Time Travel





	One Does Not Simply Walk Out Of Apokolips

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Batfam Week 2018](https://batfamweek2018.tumblr.com) on Tumblr, day 5: Time Travel. This was not at all what I intended to write, but Damian introspection happened and I was unable to stop it. Also Tim's last word are a LotR quote/meme, I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. 
> 
> This is unbeta-ed, because I didn't want to bother my beta at the last minute - don't hesitate to warn me if you find a mistake
> 
> See warnings in tags.

“ _One does not simply walk out of Apokolips”_

 

Damian had been livid the first time Drake had said it. The world had been turning into ashes because his father had thought he could go to Apokolips and come back without consequences, so the moment had seemed inappropriate for inane quotes. However, as time had passed and the situation had worsened, he had seen how those _memes_ and _pop culture references_ had helped group cohesion, how the right quote at the right time had made the whole group laugh despite their impending doom. So he had swallowed his pride and asked Drake to explain this phenomenon.

And so Timothy had taught him. About social media and movies and books and bands. All the entertainment that had burned with the rest of organized society, leaving only fond memories in the minds of the last survivors. Damian had asked him about his favorites, and had been regaled with stories about Hobbits and magic rings, spaceships and robots, and something about fish and towels. They hadn't had any books, but Timothy had known an impressive number of quotes.

Now Damian was not angry. Instead the quote managed to get a wet laugh out of him. Of course those would be Tim's last words. It was fitting. Yet, as he held his brother's body in his arms, he knew there was more to it. He could understand the encouragement behind it. Frodo had walked into Mordor, even though Boromir and so many other had died. Damian would walk out of the Apokolips-apocalypse, even without Tim. Their plan was almost ready. He only needed to reach the machine and choose a date.

* * *

 

One turned out to be surprisingly more difficult than the other. He pondered his choices as he sat in their makeshift hangar. The obvious choice would have been just before Father and the other went to Apokolips. He could warn them about the dangers, and maybe his presence would help them come to terms with not resurrecting him. Yet, he somehow doubted his father would be willing to listen to reason, even – especially – if it came from his dead son.

Then again, maybe his father didn't have to know the boy he'd see would not be the son he was trying to bring back. If he calculated the time and place correctly, he could pretend he had been resurrected by his grandfather and then had broken out of his clutches to go home. He could even use the Pit Rage as an excuse for any potential apocalypse-related PTSD.

That sounded like a good plan, but... If he had his dates right, then Richard would already be dead. Not to mention the fact that he'd find a version of Timothy he did not get along with. Of course, he knew his brother already loved him enough back then to go along with his father's plan, but between his previous murder attempts and what they had witnessed of Jason's Pit Rage, he would be justified in being doubly suspicious of Damian.

He knew jeopardizing their only plan to prevent the apocalypse for something like personal feelings was disgraceful, but the more he thought about it, the worse the prospect seemed. Maybe he could find another time...

What if he prevented his death? Maybe Nightwing would survive the ordeals that had killed him in this timeline if he wasn't consumed by grief. But then only the younger him would get his eldest brother back and a chance to bond with Timothy. Damian would have to spend his life hiding in order to prevent uncomfortable questions – not to mention the possibility that his mother would keep trying to kill him until it worked.

Maybe go back to when his mother introduced him to his father and take his younger self's place? He could start over with all of them, then. Befriend Tim, earn his father's trust, maybe even prevent his father's “death” and create a plan to integrate Jason back in the family. But what of his younger self? Would he kill him? Hide him somewhere? Leave him for his mother to raise? He couldn't do that to him. Younger him may have been a brat, but he deserved better.

Better than what Damian had just been thinking of doing to him, and certainly better than what his mother had done to him.

Maybe that was it. Maybe he could go back to his birth, kidnap his baby self and go seek shelter in Gotham. His father would certainly agree to protect a boy who claimed to have escaped the League, especially if he came with a baby. Then he'd get to be Grayson's equal and Tim and Jason's big brother, and younger him would grow up happy and loved, and never would have to take a life.

But what if his mother decided to fight for her baby? What if she created a plan to destroy Gotham to take younger him back? Or what if she just made another clone, and made an evil Damian that wouldn't be introduced to Batman and his philosophy?

The only way for Damian to prevent his mother from making an evil clone would be to prevent her from having any genetic material at all. If he just prevented his parents from procreating at all, then there wouldn't be any younger him to take into account, his father wouldn't have to live with having been raped, and if he made himself a place close to his father, he could ensure the rest of his sibling found their way into the family. After all, who said that Father had to kick Grayson out in order to adopt Todd, or that Todd had to die for Timothy to make himself known?

Decision made, Damian started to adjust the device.

A part of him was surprised he wasn't more bothered at the idea of preventing his own conception or changing the course of time. Then again, Timothy had taught him a very insightful quote about such things.

As the time machine started to power up, Damian recited the words.

 

_“One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a broadminded and well-adjusted family can’t cope with.”_

He hoped that also applied to preventing one's own birth.

_“There is also no problem about changing the course of history – the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.”_

 

A glowing portal opened before him.

Well, he was just about to find out if that part was true.

He stepped in.

 

**Author's Note:**

> "...The major problem is quite simply one of grammar" the whole quote comes from _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ which, much like Damian, I haven't read but have heard a lot about. Anyway, time-travel grammar is awful. 
> 
> Also I originally wanted to write the part when Damian meets less-grim Bruce and preteen Dick, prevents his own conception, and has to explain himself, so a second chapter with just that might happen someday.
> 
> Don't hesitate to come say hi on my [Tumblr](https://lil-nest.tumblr.com) in this timeline ;)


End file.
